Residents of Mendocino County, the redwood and marijuana-rich territory in California’s fabled Emerald Triangle, thought they had reached detente in the decades-old clash between pot growers and local law enforcement two years ago when the sheriff agreed to stop raiding medical cannabis producers who paid to have their crops inspected. For a $1,500 fee and adherence to rules over water usage, odor control and distance from neighbors, marijuana farmers working for groups of patients could [read more …]

The medical marijuana ordinance that Kern County supervisors decided this week to send to voters in June would, if passed, outlaw nearly every established collective or cooperative “shop” in unincorporated Kern County and make it very difficult for them to reopen in a new location. To stay in business, the collectives would have to find a new home on industrial-zoned land that is at least a mile away from schools, public parks and churches, James [read more …]

Medical marijuana advocates who blocked a Kern County ban on storefront collectives with a signature drive last year vowed Tuesday to fight a very restrictive ordinance sent to the voters by supervisors. “The campaign will go forward full force,” said Heather Epps, president of Kern Citizens for Patient Rights, the advocacy group that gathered the more than 17,350 signatures needed to overturn a complete ban supervisors had approved on collectives and cooperatives anywhere in unincorporated [read more …]

A woman who owns land in the Round Mountain area has filed a claim against Shasta County alleging deputies unlawfully searched her property and destroyed hundreds of pounds of legally grown marijuana there. Filed by Santa Rosa attorney Joe Rogoway on behalf of Esmeralda Sanchez Garcia, 25, the claim is the precursor to a lawsuit, Alayna Shulman reports in the Redding Record Searchlight. It alleges agents with the Shasta County Marijuana Eradication Team searched Sanchez [read more …]

NewsComments Off on Kern County seeks fine for excess marijuana plants

Feb132012

The Kern County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will consider whether to fine the owners of a parcel where marijuana was being grown. The county could levy $58,000 in fines against the owners the property, on Olive Drive just west of Olive Drive Church, for the cultivation of medical marijuana in violation of the Kern’s controversial 12-plant-per-parcel limit on growing the drug for medical purposes. Kern County sheriff’s deputies initially responded to the two-parcel property, [read more …]

NewsComments Off on Feds charge 6 Fresno men with interstate pot sales

Feb112012

A federal grand jury has indicted half a dozen Fresno men in an alleged medical marijuana scheme that saw weed shipped to at least eight other states. The U.S. Attorney General, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and IRS made the announcement Friday, the Fresno Bee reports. The indictment is against Fresno men Joseph Edwin Gable, Elgeron Graves, Vincent Graves, Herman Graves, Damone Kelly and Catatea James. Kevin Eugene Spencer of Roseville also was indicted. The men [read more …]